Adoptee Activism

I am not your 'Child for all Purposes'

Abstract

In this article, we, three adoptee scholars, share collectively our experiences of adoption while engaging in activism that contests adoption practices. We apply autoethnographic and reflexive strategies to unpack our shared conversation in order to foreground the plight of adoptees and offer insight into adoption and the importance of the current law reform in Aotearoa New Zealand. We draw on a model of adoptee consciousness to frame the complexity of our ‘lived experience’ and activism. In doing this we outline some of
the challenges we face as adoptees because adoption, as a human-rights injustice, is largely misunderstood, overlooked, or ignored. To begin, however, it is necessary to outline the history of closed stranger adoption in Aotearoa New Zealand with the purpose of providing context.